Jonathan Turley posts about yet another TSA travesty, this time involving a 29-year-old man with the intellect of a two-year-old. Finally, someone the TSA agents can outreason, right?
This time the incident occurred in Romulus, Michigan where a family was going to Disneyland and found two denizens waiting from them at the airport from the Unhappiest Place on Earth. Dr. David Mandy was walking his 29-year-old severely mentally disabled son through security when two agents spotted him.Drew [has] difficulty understanding orders to place his feet on the yellow shoe line and follow the TSA agents’ orders. When Dr. Mandy tried to explain his son was severely mentally disabled the TSA agents told him to back off and that they would handle the matter. They were concerned with his adult diaper and kept instructing him to rub his hand up the front and back of his pants
They then turned their attention to a small plastic toy hammer and ball that Drew carries for comfort. As with children, Drew clings to the toys for a sense of security and has had the toys for years. One agent tapped it on the wall and reportedly said “See, it’s hard. It could be used as a weapon.”The agents made the family surrender the six-inch hammer despite the trauma to Drew. The agents were convinced that Drew could try to take over the plane with his six-inch toy hammer. Unable to mail the hammer (a common and meaningless suggestion by TSA), they had to allow the agents to throw it out.
So they beat up on a mentally challenged young man. Apparently, there were no babies or wheel-chair bound women to grope. Got it.
Drew Mandy’s life likely wasn’t one that anyone would envy. Certain aspects, his confusion in a world that made no sense on its best day and his grasp of toys that soothed his world with familiarity. What cretin would even consider adding to the misery for no better reason than he could?
But another story of TSA monkeys doing pointless harm to a vulnerable person just adds to the long list of reasons why our desire for the appearance of security at the expense of reason isn’t really such a great idea. Sure, we need to remember that this is still happening, that our government’s enjoyment of control over our personal freedom and integrity continues unabated and just as stupidly as ever.
But there is another part of this story that strikes me as overlooked, and worthy of some scrutiny. From the Fox News report of the incident.
Dr. Mandy claimed they asked Drew to place his feet on the yellow shoe line, something he didn’t understand. They proceeded to pat his pants down, questioning the padding which was his adult diapers. When the agents asked Drew to take his hand and rub the front and back of his pants so they could swab it for explosives, his dad stepped in and tried to explain that Drew was mentally challenged.
“They said, ‘Please, sir, we know what we’re doing,'” Mandy said.
And Drew Mandy’s father stepped back and let the TSA agents have their way with his son.
It just killed me to have to throw it away because he’s been carrying this like for 20 years,” Mandy said.
It “just killed” the father? What about the son? Whether it’s the parent of a mentally challenged young man, or the mother of a baby, at what point does a parent decide not to back away and acquiesce in the abuse of their child? Apparently, the tipping point is when told to do so by anyone wearing the uniform of a government agent.
No doubt Dr. Mandy, an osteopath specializing in pediatrics per a quick search, has spent a good part of his life helping his son to enjoy life as best possible. He likely a wonderful, caring father who has shown love and devotion to Drew, and that’s great.
But some parents would rather take a bullet between their eyes than allow anyone to do harm to their child. This situation hadn’t escalated to the point where bullets were in the offing, and yet Dr. Mandy complied with the instructions of his TSA handlers. Was there something about them to suggest they really did know what they were doing? It’s hard to believe.
So why did he just back off and let the TSA do as they pleased? Where is the outrage? Where is the will to tell the blue-shirted monkeys that they don’t have the first clue what they’re doing, that they are doing pointless harm to your child and that you are not going to be compliant sheep?
The TSA conceded afterward that this incident pointed out a failure in the training of their monkeys in dealing with the mentally challenged.
“Very polite. Very apologetic. He was embarrassed. He (said) we have to review how we deal with special needs individuals. Obviously, he (said), we’re doing a terrible job,” Mandy told us. “It made me feel that there is still hope, that there is still justice and that there’s still somebody who listens to people’s problems (in) the federal government.
Or maybe the response allays Dr. Mandy’s guilt for having abandoned his son to these monkeys without even the pretense of a fight. Whoever wrote the TSA’s letter in response was far smarter than most, realizing how easy it is to assuage the sheep with promises that it will never happen again. And if it does, who cares, as it’s not like these sheep-parents will do anything about it.
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When I first saw something about a 29 year old man with the intellect of a 2 year old, I assumed you were talking about a TSA employee.
Remember the 1964 movie with Peter O’Toole and Richard Burton, Thomas Beckett? There is a scene in that movie where King Henry II and Beckett barge into a peasant’s hut, and discover the beautiful daughter. Henry gropes and mauls her and at one point lifts up her skirt with his riding crop.
Meanwhile the poor father behaves like a servile and frightened ruin of a man (given he has no weapon or recourse) having to witness this without reacting.
I think about that scene when I read stories like this and I conclude that we are becoming like servile peasants who abandon our God-given authority to protect our family members against this sort of abuse. Of course, I’m probably just a coward because I refuse to go to an airport instead of going and making a stand at the security point.
Great image. I’m a father. I’ve told my children that my love for them is such that I would jump in front of speeding bullet to protect them. There have been moments when I’m put to the test, fortunately not a speeding bullet but a time when I am faced with the decision to either stand up and protect them at my own risk, or snivel and justify why I backed away. I’ve made my choice. How any parent could back down is unfathomable to me.
No.
The cowards are those who see TSA’s abuse and say “whatever it takes.”
The only way TSA could be brought to heel would be if the airlines started to feel the pinch of people refusing to fly. That it will never happen is not a good reason for us not to do our part.
Refusing to fly is one way to do our part. Refusing to be servants of the government is another, and far broader, matter.
So some feel the father should have made a “stand” at the security point? Let’s review what would likely happen: the son would be further upset by the confrontation, the TSA agents would become intent on teaching the whole family and anyone watching a lesson, the father would be taken away in handcuffs, and separated from his son. The son might well be detained in another room and/or subjected to a more comprehensive search. Once the confrontation started, it is unlikely the father would have been permitted just to take his family and leave given TSA’s habit of detaining those who object to “security” procedures. Overall, it seems unlikely that confrontation by the father would have done anything except make the experience more traumatic for the son.
Standing silently, letting the powerful agents of the government have their way, is always the safest route. There are always good reasons not to cause any trouble by keeping your mouth shut and letting them do as they please.
No Scott, on this one you’re wrong, the commenter is right. Someone not trained in the art of confrontation like you and I would only have made things worse. I think it’s inappropriate to criticize the father for making the best, bad choice under the circumstances.
As might be obvious from my post, I think otherwise, and quite strongly. I’m not suggesting the father should pull out a gun or tackle the TSA monkey, but to stop his attempt to explain that his son was intellectually challenged just because the monkey said they know what they’re doing isn’t close to good enough.
And if he continued to try to get their attention, make his point, alert them to the damage they were doing, then he should have gone for their supervisor, or some other agent who might not have been as big a moron.
But stand there and take it silently? Not even close. You don’t have to be a lawyer to know that something needs to be said when your child is being harmed. And if they had gotten angry with him, locked him in a room for trying, so what? Is that too much to endure to protect a child? I don’t think so.
I have a special needs son. He, too, has comfort items that he’s had for years. I would stand in that airport line trying to call my senator before allowing some TSA monkeys to take them from him.
Exactly. You’ve got to do something. You just can’t stand there and cower in fear.
I have a profoundly retarded sister. I would almost be afraid for the TSA agents if they did something like this to my sister in front of my 77 year old mother. After 50 years of protecting my sister, there is no way my mother would just stand there and let them lead her away or take away her toys. For one thing, with someone like her, she could slip and fall and bust her head in a heartbeat if someone tries to get her away from my mother or takes something away from her.
My clients are private providers of care for people like my sister and they have enough problems with cops not understanding and sometimes hurting their charges. A 2 year old in a man or woman’s body is very vulnerable to being misunderstood by those in “authority”, not to mention being feared by those with no understanding. That is a prescription for bad things.
The intersection of the disabled and the police has long been a matter of grave concern for me. You might want to take a look at some of the posts I’ve written on the subject.
Thanks. I will read these for ideas. I don’t do criminal defense, but I once tried to rouse the provider’s associations to raise some heck after an idiot Texas judge sentenced a severely retarded kid to an outrageous sentence to be served consecutively for playing show and tell behind the shed with a younger kid. They were afraid to do anything, but I was at least able to give the appellate attorney some alternative places where the court system could put the kid if reversed. The worst thing about the case was that the original criminal defense lawyer put his client on the stand. He had no understanding of the situation.
Let’s try Don’s theory on for size, with the “explaining it to the child” test:
“Son, I knew it wasn’t right to allow those government thugs to take away your toy, but I stood by and let it happen because I’m not trained in the art of confrontation.”
Bob, in light of this story (and the many others like it), would you travel by air with your son?
I wonder what mental process was going on in the minds of the TSA agents. Did they stop to engage in a rational consideration of what they were about to do. Or did they, like a mindless automaton, act without thinking.
All of this is right except for taking shots at the dad as if everyone has to be a civil rights martyr. A screaming match with the agent in front of his mentally challenged son was not likely to lead to a better outcome for his son and calling for a supervisor might have meant a missed flight.
Focus on the real target and fire away.
Excuse me, did you just say “a missed flight,” as though that’s something that matters?
This is why the Amerian people deserve the TSA.
I hope I have the presence of mind and courage to do something like that if it falls to me.
Was it Edmund Burke who wrote about the consequences of doing nothing?
Yup.
Are you sure?
That’s what Burke told me.
Tipping point? I don’t believe such a point exists. Every day I point out to people what is going on around us, that out liberty is being eroded with each passing moment as surely as water slowly eroded the Grand Canyon yet people of all types, the trailer park crowd, the project crowd, smart people with lots of letters after their names, construction workers, etc., all look at me like I am crazy. As you say so often and succinctly, anything to “protect the children” or “save us from terrorists”. I’ll add to that “fight the war on drugs”. The vast majority of the American people don’t care because they don’t see how it affects them. Until that day arrives nothing will change.